Centre tells states to give captive mines’ surplus to Coal India Ltd
4 July 2013 11:12 PM GMT
Battling coal crunch, Coal India Limited (CIL) received a shot in the arm on Wednesday with the Centre asking states to follow norms for surplus coal disposal from a captive mine that include handing over the same to the PSU in case some of the joint allocatees fail to set up end-use plants.
'In case of joint allocation of a coal block to multiple allocatees, where one or more co-allocatees might not be able to develop there associated captive end-use plants...disposal of surplus coal... shall be as per the prevailing policy of government of India which could also include handing over of such coal to the nearest subsidiary of Coal India (CIL),' Coal Ministry said in a letter to state chief secretaries.
Asking states to incorporate such condition in the mining lease by state governments, the Centre said such coal could be either handed over to the nearest CIL subsidiary or 'to any person designated by it' at a transfer price to be determined by the government.
'This clause may be incorporated as one of the conditions while granting ML (mining lease) by the state government in all cases,' Coal Ministry said. The move would result in increasing the stock of dry-fuel with the world's largest coal miner CIL, which missed the output target of last fiscal by 3 per cent, producing 452.5 mt as against the target of 464 mt.
Odisha government had raised the issue that quite a good number of coal blocks have been allocated to a group of private companies and even five-six firms were tagged to a single block but there was no uniformity in the progress of setting up end-use plants by them.
'It has been observed...while one allottee company is about to complete its end-use plant, the other co-allottees for the same coal block are either lagging far behind or are complete non-starters in setting up end-use plants,' Principal Sec retary, Steel and Mines, Odisha had said in a letter, asking what the states should do under such circumstances.
'In case of joint allocation of a coal block to multiple allocatees, where one or more co-allocatees might not be able to develop there associated captive end-use plants...disposal of surplus coal... shall be as per the prevailing policy of government of India which could also include handing over of such coal to the nearest subsidiary of Coal India (CIL),' Coal Ministry said in a letter to state chief secretaries.
Asking states to incorporate such condition in the mining lease by state governments, the Centre said such coal could be either handed over to the nearest CIL subsidiary or 'to any person designated by it' at a transfer price to be determined by the government.
'This clause may be incorporated as one of the conditions while granting ML (mining lease) by the state government in all cases,' Coal Ministry said. The move would result in increasing the stock of dry-fuel with the world's largest coal miner CIL, which missed the output target of last fiscal by 3 per cent, producing 452.5 mt as against the target of 464 mt.
Odisha government had raised the issue that quite a good number of coal blocks have been allocated to a group of private companies and even five-six firms were tagged to a single block but there was no uniformity in the progress of setting up end-use plants by them.
'It has been observed...while one allottee company is about to complete its end-use plant, the other co-allottees for the same coal block are either lagging far behind or are complete non-starters in setting up end-use plants,' Principal Sec retary, Steel and Mines, Odisha had said in a letter, asking what the states should do under such circumstances.
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